Gaming the future

Written by Dr Jane Thomason, a world-renowned futurist, author and advocate for sustainable societal change through innovation and technology

In 2021, in Digital Bytes, I wrote about gamification, nudge economics and distributed autonomous communities (DAC) the link between gamification, blockchain and its combined potential for addressing global challenges. Gamers are of all ages, with an average age of 35-44 and a gender split of nearly 60-40 males to females. Asia leads the market, with 1.48 billion gamers, more than Europe, Latin America and North America combined. Mobile gaming comprises 40% of the market share. With gaming now

the most popular recreational activity globally with over 3.2 billion users, it's timely to consider its potential for more than just recreation. Web3 gaming, which creates a blockchain ecosystem around community, social connections and player empowerment, has an estimated $200billion addressable market. Web3 gaming surged by 2,000% from 2021 to 2022, with Play-and-Earn (PAE) games and Esports powering much of the growth. Play-to-Earn (P2E) games initially attracted criticism due to unsustainable…